As disclosed in Morrison and Boyd, Organic Chemistry, Third Edition, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1973, pp. 974-976, and March, Advanced Organic Chemistry, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 1077-1078, it is known that hydroaromatic compounds can be aromatized in various ways. However, the known aromatization techniques are generally characterized by one or more disadvantages, such as high cost, the need for fairly severe conditions, the lack of sufficient ease in removing the aromatizing agent from the product, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,010 (Ramachandran et al.-I) teaches that 6-alkoxy-1-cyano-3,4-dihydronaphthalenes can be aromatized by known techniques, such as by dehydrogenation in the presence of a palladium-on-carbon catalyst.
Copending application Ser. No. (880,070) (Ramachandran et al.-II), filed June 30, 1986, teaches that hydroaromatic compounds, including the 6-alkoxy-1-cyano-3,4-dihydronaphthalenes of Ramachandran et al.-I, can be aromatized by the use of a base.